ARTICLES
Hydrogen fuels Rockets, but what about Power for Daily Life? We’re
getting Closer!
By Zhenguo Huang;
Zhenguo is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Technology, Sydney
NASA has launched all of its space shuttle missions using hydrogen as fuel. NASA, CC BY
Hydrogen is the first element on the periodic table. In its pure
form hydrogen is a light, colourless gas, but forms a liquid at
very low temperatures. Have you ever watched a space shuttle
launch? The fuel used to thrust these enormous structures away
from Earth’s gravitational pull is hydrogen.
• hydrogen consumption – converting the chemical energy of
hydrogen into other forms of energy.
Hydrogen production
For hydrogen to become a major future fuel, water electrolysis
is likely to be the best method of production. In this process,
electricity is used to split water molecules up into hydrogen (H 2 )
and oxygen (O 2 ). This technology would become commercially
feasible when electricity is produced at relatively low costs by
renewable sources such as solar and wind. Costs may drop
further in the near future as the production technology becomes
more efficient.
Hydrogen also holds potential as a source of energy for our daily
activities – driving, heating our houses, and maybe more.
This month the Federal Coalition Government opened public
consultation on a national hydrogen strategy. Labor has also
pledged to set aside funding to develop clean hydrogen. The
COAG Energy Ministers meeting in December, 2018, indicated
strong support for a hydrogen economy. But is Australia actually
ready to explore this competitive, low-carbon energy alternative
for residential, commercial, industrial and transport sectors?
Hydrogen storage and delivery
Effective storage and delivery are vital factors to consider for the
safe and efficient handling of large amounts of hydrogen.
There are two key aspects to assessing our readiness for such
a hydrogen economy – technological advancement (can we
actually do it?) and societal acceptance (will we use it?).
Because it is very light, hydrogen has conventionally been
compressed at high pressure, or liquefied and stored at an
extremely low temperature of –253℃. Taking these steps
requires an extra energy investment, so efficiency drops by up to
40%. However, current hydrogen storage and delivery still rests
on these two technologies – compression and liquefaction – as
they are proven and supported by well-established infrastructure
and experience.
Is the technology mature enough?
The hydrogen economy cycle consists of three key steps:
• hydrogen production
• hydrogen storage and delivery
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SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 68 NO 1